〉UNU-CS at ITU Kaleidoscope 2017

UNU-CS at ITU Kaleidoscope 2017

November 29, 2017

Between 26-29 November 2017, researchers from the United Nations University Institute on Computing and Society (UNU-CS) participated in the ninth edition of the Kaleidoscope academic conference, hosted in Nanjing, China. The conference is organized annually by the ITU and the theme this year was “Challenges for a data-driven society”, where two papers that showcase the work undertaken within the Small Data & SDGs project at UNU-CS were accepted under the track “Accelerating sustainable development through data”.

Ignacio Marcovecchio presented a paper titled “Capability maturity models towards improved quality of the Sustainable Development Goals indicator data” which discusses Capability Maturity Models (CMM) as a mechanism towards improving the quality of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) indicators data. He discussed the results of an extensive review of the current initiatives on improving social statistics; the preliminary formulation of a CMM to assess and improve the maturity of National Statistics Offices within national data ecosystems; and a set of recommendations towards addressing the challenges within the domain of social indicators monitoring.

Mamello Thinyane’s paper titled “Small data and sustainable development – individuals at the center of data-driven societies” discussed the important role of individual and community-level small data towards the monitoring of the SDG indicators. He also presented the results from a survey that investigated participants’ attitudes towards social indicators monitoring, data ownership and sharing, as well as concerns around data privacy.

ITU Kaleidoscope provided an opportunity for networking and engagement with stakeholders and researchers involved with standardization work within the ICT sector.